Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Statement on Nottingham City Council’s amended Council Tax Benefit
Support Scheme.

The Government is
proposing to abolish the national Council Tax Benefit scheme which is centrally
funded and make all councils in England bring in their own scheme from April
2013 with less funding. In October, the government offered 12 months
transitional funding based on a number of conditions, including an 8.5% cap on
the level of Council Tax anyone currently receiving full Council Tax Benefit
would have to pay.

Notts Defend Council
Tax Benefits opposes the proposed abolition of Council Tax Benefit and its
replacement by local Council Tax Schemes; campaigns for councils to refuse to
pass on the cuts to its local community; supports those unable to pay their
council tax due to the proposed changes; calls on councils not to pursue those
who are unable to pay their Council tax due to the council's changes.

In the minutes of Nottingham City Council Meeting on 18 December 2012, the City Council has
stated their intention to apply for transitional funding from central
government to supplement their Council Tax Support Scheme and have therefore
changed their proposals for a Council Tax Benefit Support Scheme for 2013/14.

Whilst the latest
proposal is less harsh than the original proposal of having to pay at least 20%
of Council Tax), Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign
(NNDCTBC) opposes these new proposals. It should be noted that under the
transitional funding rules, the council had the opportunity to avoid passing on
any cut to everyone currently receiving full benefit. Furthermore, this
represents a shift away from the existing (national) scheme where CTB was based
on the minimum level which people need to live on. Now CTB will be based on the
amount of funding central government decides to pay each year (a cut of approximately
15% in the City Council’s funding from 2012/2013 for next year and any increased demand for CTB e.g. due to job losses or reduced income such
as from short time working, has to come from the pot of money already allocated
by the government.

Greater need means less is available
for each recipient and year on year, councils will be re-assessing their income
and expected needs and looking how to make the savings. If councils give in
this year, it will set a dangerous precedent, since if the government is successful in abolishing the national CTB scheme
due to a lack of fight by local authorities, they will be free to make further
cuts in the funding available in future. This could signal the end of
Council Tax Benefit at an effective level.

Nottingham City
Council is proposing the removal of empty property council tax discounts and
exemptions to part fund the 2013/14 scheme.
No details of this have been provided.
Whilst no-one wants to see properties left uninhabited, there can be
many reasons for empty properties – it is not just big private landlords and
mortgage companies sitting on their properties – it can be homes that are unfit
for habitation; or properties that people cannot sell due to the economic
crisis, it can also impact people who are away from home because of caring and
other family responsibilities or those
in residential care or hospital etc.

NNDCTBC opposes any blanket removal of
empty property council tax discounts and exemptions because this will cause
hardship and have a disproportionate impact on certain groups

Nottingham City
Council is applying for transitional funding but is still cutting 8.5% from
Council Tax Benefit for everyone, except pensioners who currently receives full
benefit. A couple in a Band A property
(based on the 2012/13 Council Tax level) and in receipt of Income Support
benefit would pay £1.75 per week under the 2013/14 CTSS rather than £4.13 per
week under the original proposals and someone in a Band D property would pay
£2.64 per week. For households where
there is regularly no money left at the end of the week or month this is still
unaffordable and will cause hardship and debt.

Nottingham City
Council is proposing setting a minimum award level. This meansthat anyone who would receive less
than the 50p per week will lose their entitlement. If this is so, it is a
petty, penny pinching approach. Once introduced, the threshold of the minimum
award level can easily be increased in future years, as in Nottingham City
Council’s proposal for 2014/15 of a minimum award level of £2 or £4 per week.

NNDCTBC opposes all changes to
Council Tax Benefit that are a detriment including the proposals that all
working age people would have to pay at least 8.5% of their Council tax. We
oppose the setting of a minimum award level.

2014/15

Nottingham
City Council intends to pursue its original proposals (apart from backdating)
in 2014/15.. The Council is still proposing a 20% cut in CTB, reduction of the
upper savings limit (from £16k to £6k) so anyone with savings above that is not
entitled to Council Tax Support (CTS,) and CTS only being paid at a maximum of
a Band B rate, regardless of the size of your property.

NNDCTBC opposes all the proposed
changes to Council Tax Benefit in 2014/15. We oppose the proposal that all
working age households should pay 20%
of their Council Tax, we oppose the reduction in the savings limits and the
changes proposed for the Second Adult rebate.

There
is overwhelming opposition to cutting Council Tax Benefit in Nottingham. This
was shown by the responses to a consultation by the City Council: 66% of
respondents opposed the proposal to cut

CTB
by 20%, and some of the “key messages”[1] drawn
from the consultation is that the City
Council should to avoid cutting CTB
altogether and the City Council should campaign against Government cuts (even
though, from the way the consultation questions were framed, this was not
presented as an alternative).

The Council say a key feature of their intentions for
2014/15 is long-term sustainability,
however, creating a situation where people are unable to meet
their council tax bills, causing debt and homelessness etc. is not a
sustainable option, it will increase demand for other Council services and will
cause long term damage to the social infrastructure.

As Councillor Jon Collins stated2:

"This will have the same kind of
impact on people that the poll tax did. Very simply because we will be having
to collect small amounts of money from people who will struggle to pay it, who
will therefore get into arrears” "We
will be forced to collect this money, which will add to their debts, and will
end up in court, which will lead to further debts.” "People will be unable to pay or refuse
and court will be clogged up with people facing custodial sentences."

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign
calls on the Council to commit to not pursuing people who cannot afford their Council
Tax. We call on the local authority to make clear that it will carry out its
fiduciary responsibilities by not pursuing those on low incomes including those
at work because it would not be cost effective.

Nottingham City Council (and all other
councils) should refuse to pass on
central government cuts on and Nottingham CityCouncil
should stand firm to pay Nottingham residents according to their benefit needs
based on the existing system. The only sustainable option is a fully funded scheme.

Nottingham City Council
should use reserves to cover any shortfall and to buy time to build a mass
campaign for properly funded councils
and the return of monies lost due to reductions in central government funding. Nottingham
City Council should stop using highly paid external consultants which costs
millions of pounds.

Nottingham
and Nottinghamshire Defend Council Tax Benefits Campaign request an urgent
meeting with the Council to discuss the new proposals.

Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Defend Council
Tax Benefits Campaign

[1]
Nottingham City Council have included the following “Key messages” in their
report of the consultation:

·The proposed
scheme [is] unaffordable to some people and would unfairly penalise some
people.

·The Council should
refuse to pass on the cuts and should campaign against Government cuts.

·The
Council should save money elsewhere or use other money to make up the shortfall
in funding, although this may be a short term solution.